


Gonna Be Okay (Just Dance)

by psocoptera



Category: Huge
Genre: Bullying, Genderqueer Character, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-16
Updated: 2011-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-14 20:06:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psocoptera/pseuds/psocoptera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piznarski gets some closure.  Written for the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/abc_las/">ABC Network Last Author Standing</a> challenge prompt "[character] makes a wish, it goes wrong (or right)" and posted here with minor edits.</p><p>Warning for a character making transphobic remarks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gonna Be Okay (Just Dance)

Here's how bad it is: Dante doesn't even care if he loses weight any more. He remembers when he started camp, he thought he'd be so proud of himself if the number on the scale went down.

And then everything went wrong. First Shay had gone off at him, screaming that he "wasn't doing the work" just for trying to liven things up a little on their run - and he had _so_ been doing the work, he was keeping pace. Plenty of other people had been talking, but she'd singled him out to scream at. And he'd just stood there, like a dumb little kid, letting her shout in his face - god, he'd cried.

He'd hoped, when he saw her crying on the phone that night, that she'd just been having a bad day or something. But instead she's made herself his personal drill sergeant: now every activity he has with her, she finds some new reason to yell at him. If he's smiling, he's laughing at her. If he's frowning, he doesn't want to be there. If he's slacking a little, he's lazy. If he's working hard, he's just trying to look good. He's tried to point out that she's being unfair, but she just screams more. What he really wants is to tell her to get off his back and let him try to enjoy the rest of camp - it's sports, it's supposed to be fun - what he wants is to stand up to her, for once, and have _her_ be the one to back down. But she never is.

So that's half of it. And then there's the other thing. If Shay is the deer fly biting him in the daytime, Alistair is the mosquito stinging him at night, or something. Okay, maybe he should leave the metaphors to someone else. It's unfair to compare Alistair to a mosquito. It's just that he _won't forgive Dante_. He knows he never should have taken that stupid dare, but he's apologized over and over, and Alistair is polite, but... cold. He'll babble to anyone who'll stand still, but he'll only answer Dante if he asks him a direct question, and he always sounds so weirdly indifferent - Alistair, who is maybe the most sincere person Dante has ever met. Who'd been so nice to him, trying to let him down gently, of all things, before Dante told him he'd just kissed him as a joke. Alistair says he doesn't hate him, but he says it like Dante does to Shay, when he'll say anything for her to just go away. And Dante definitely hates Shay.

So there they are, his new summer goals. Stand up to Shay, make it up to Alistair, and they're both impossible. All he can do is shuffle through the last weeks of camp; he's actually looking forward to going home and being back in school, that's how pathetic he is.

And then in one shining moment, all of his wishes are granted.

It's the last night of camp, and there's a dance. It's in the cafeteria, and they're playing the corniest music imaginable, but it is legitimately A Dance. Dante had gone a little nuts in the laundry room and ironed his best button-down shirt. He's sitting on the sidelines, watching other people dance, but he looks good.

Shay is manning the punch table, taking tickets to make sure no one gets seconds - he wants to make a joke about "punch cards" but it's a little too geeky. Alistair would probably get it. But - Dante looks around - he's not here. Dante walks around to see if he's hiding from the dance floor in some odd corner; he finds like six couples making out, but no Alistair.

Dante is just about to start asking people if they've seen him when he walks in.

He's wearing a dress. Or, like, a skirt or something, Dante's no expert on ladies' fashion, but he's all made up and his hair's pulled back and it doesn't look ridiculous, like talent-night drag, it looks... weirdly right on him.

People stop dancing and stare, when they see him, but Alistair squares his shoulders and walks calmly over to the punch table.

"Ticket!" Shay barks at him, automatically sticking out her hand, and only then does she look at him; the double-take is visible to Dante twenty feet away.

"Are you wearing a _dress_?" she asks, voice rising.

Alistair's glance flicks down, like he's checking. Shay's eyes narrow and she leans forward.

"Are you trying to be funny?" she shouts. "This isn't costume night! You have ten seconds to hustle back to your cabin to change, you little freak!"

There's an intake of breath all around the room. Alistair's lip is wobbling a little, but he's still holding out his ticket expectantly. Dante doesn't even realize he's moving forward until he's there.

"Hey," he says flatly, "You can't talk to him like that."

Shay looks up at him, jaw held in an angry snarl. "Are you trying to tell me what I - "

Dante looks back down at her. He's never realized quite how much he looms over both of them.

"Maybe out there," he interrupts, stabbing a finger in the direction of the door, out towards the soccer field and basketball court, "It's your job to bully us. That sucks, but whatever. In here," pointing down at the floor, "We're having a dance. So no hating on Alistair. He's got a ticket, just give him some punch already."

"That's okay," Alistair says to Shay coolly, "I don't really want any after all." He turns away from her dismissively.

Dante hopes he's not about to do the same to him.

"I think you look great," he tells Alistair. "You look - " he gulps. "Great."

Behind them, Shay is sputtering.

Dante holds out his hand. "Want to dance?"

Alistair gives him the biggest, most brilliant smile he's ever seen, and takes his hand.


End file.
